The Persian Literature Volume Ii Part 13

x.x.xVII

Patience accomplishes its object, while hurry speeds to its ruin:--With my own eyes I saw in the desert that the deliberate man outstripped him that had hurried on. The wing-footed steed is broken down in his speed, whilst the camel-driver jogs on with his beast to the end of his journey.

x.x.xVIII

Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence, and if he knew this he would no longer be ignorant:--When unadorned with the grace of eloquence it is wise to keep watch over the tongue in the mouth. The tongue, by abuse, renders a man contemptible; levity in a nut is a sign of its being empty. A fool was undertaking the instruction of an a.s.s, and had devoted his whole time to this occupation. A wise man said to him: "What art thou endeavoring to do? In this vain attempt dread the reproof of the censorious! A brute can never learn speech from thee; do thou learn silence from him." That man who reflects not before he speaks will only make all the more improper answer. Either like a man arrange thy speech with judgment, or like a brute sit silent.

x.x.xIX

Whoever shall argue with one more learned than himself that others may take him for a wise man, only confirms them in his being a fool:--"When a person superior to what thou art engages thee in conversation do not contradict him, though thou may'st know better."

XL

He can see no good who will a.s.sociate with the wicked:--Were an angel from heaven to a.s.sociate with a demon, he would learn his brutality, perfidy, and hypocrisy. Virtue thou never canst learn of the vicious; it is not the wolf's occupation to mend skins, but to tear them.

XLI

Expose not the secret failings of mankind, otherwise you must verily bring scandal upon them and distrust upon yourself.

XLII

Whoever acquires knowledge and does not practise it resembles him who ploughs his land and leaves it unsown.

XLVI

It is not every man that has a handsome physical exterior that has a good moral character; for the faculty of business or virtue resides in the heart and not in the skin. Thou canst in one day ascertain the intellectual faculties of a man, and what proficiency he has made in his degrees of knowledge; but be not secure of his mind, nor foolishly sure, for it may take years to detect the innate baseness of the heart.

XLVII

Whoever contends with the great sheds his own blood:--Thou contemplatest thyself as a mighty great man; and they have truly remarked that the squinter sees double. Thou who canst in play b.u.t.t with a ram must soon find thyself with a broken pate.

XLVIII

To grapple with a lion, or to box against a naked scimitar, are not the acts of the prudent:--Brave not the furious with war and opposition before their arms of strength cross thy hands of submission.

XLIX

A weak man who tries his courage against the strong leagues with the foe to his own destruction:--Nurtured in a shade, what strength can he have that he should engage with the warlike in battle; impotent of arm, he was falling the victim of folly when he set his wrist in opposition to a wrist of iron.

L

Whoever will not listen to admonition harbors the fancy of hearing reprehension:--When advice gains not an admission into the ear, if I give thee reproof, hear it in silence.

LI

The idle cannot endure the industrious any more than the curs of the market-place, who, on meeting dogs employed for sporting, will snarl at and prevent them pa.s.sing.

LII

A mean wretch that cannot vie with another in virtue will a.s.sail him with malignity:--The narrow-minded envier will somehow manage to revile thee, who in thy presence might have the tongue of his utterance struck dumb.

LV

To hold counsel with women is bad, and to deal generously with prodigals a fault:--Showing mercy upon the sharp-fanged pard must prove an injustice to the harmless sheep.

LVI

Whoever has his foe at his mercy, and does not kill him, is his own enemy:--With a stone in his hand, and the snake's head convenient, a wise man hesitates not in crus.h.i.+ng it.

Certain people have seen this maxim in an opposite point of view, saying: "It were wiser to delay the execution of captives, inasmuch as the option is left so that you can slay, or you can release them; but if you shall have heedlessly put them to death, the policy is defunct, for the opportunity of repairing it is lost":--There is no great difficulty to separate the soul from the body, but it is not so easy to restore life to the dead: prudence dictates patience in giving the arrow flight, for let it quit the bow and it never can be recalled.

LVII

A learned man who has got into an argument with the ignorant can have no hopes of supporting his own dignity; and if an ignoramus by his loquacity gets the upper hand it should not surprise us, for he is a stone and can bruise a gem:--No wonder if his spirit flag; the nightingale is cooped up in the same cage with the crow:--If the man of sense is coa.r.s.ely treated by the vulgar, let it not excite our wrath and indignation; if a piece of worthless stone can bruise a cup of gold, its worth is not increased, nor that of the gold diminished.

LX

Genius without education is the subject of our regret, and education without genius is labor lost. Although embers have a lofty origin (fire being of a n.o.ble nature), yet, as having no intrinsic worth, they fall upon a level with common dust; on the other hand, sugar does not derive its value from the cane, but from its own innate quality:--Inasmuch as the disposition of Canaan was bad, his descent from the prophet Noah stood him in no stead. Pride thyself on what virtue thou hast, and not on thy parentage; the rose springs from a thorn-bush, and Abraham from Azor (neither his father's name, or fire).

LXI

That is musk which discloses itself by its smell, and not what the perfumers impose upon us:--If a man be expert in any art he needs not tell it, for his own skill will show it.